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A family of binary magnetic icosahedral quasicrystals based on rare earths and cadmium

Nature Materials volume 12, pages 714–718 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Examples of stable binary icosahedral quasicrystals are relatively rare, and at present there are no known examples featuring localized magnetic moments. These would represent an ideal model system for attaining a deeper understanding of the nature of magnetic interactions in aperiodic lattices. Here we report the discovery of a family of at least seven rare earth icosahedral binary quasicrystals, i-R–Cd (R = Gd to Tm, Y), six of which bear localized magnetic moments. Our work highlights the importance of carefully motivated searches through phase space1 and supports the proposal that, like icosahedral Sc12Zn88 (ref. 2), binary quasicrystalline phases may well exist nearby known crystalline approximants, perhaps as peritectically forming compounds with very limited liquidus surfaces, offering very limited ranges of composition/temperature for primary solidification.

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Figure 1: Revised cadmium–gadolinium binary phase diagram.
Figure 2: Weiss temperature, Θ, values versus de Gennes factor.
Figure 3: Single-grain and powder X-ray diffraction from i-Gd–Cd.
Figure 4: Low-temperature FC and ZFC magnetic susceptibility, M(T)/H, data.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge and thank W. Straszheim for the WDS measurements, D. S. Robinson and A. Sapkota for assistance with the high-energy X-ray diffraction measurements and R. J. McQueeney for useful discussions. The research was supported by the Office of the Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division, US Department of Energy (DOE). Ames Laboratory is operated for DOE by Iowa State University under contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11358. Use of the Advanced Photon Source was supported by the US DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ames Laboratory, US DOE, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

    Alan I. Goldman, Tai Kong, Andreas Kreyssig, Anton Jesche, Mehmet Ramazanoglu, Kevin W. Dennis, Sergey L. Bud’ko & Paul C. Canfield

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

    Alan I. Goldman, Tai Kong, Andreas Kreyssig, Anton Jesche, Mehmet Ramazanoglu, Sergey L. Bud’ko & Paul C. Canfield

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  1. Alan I. Goldman
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  8. Paul C. Canfield
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Contributions

A.I.G., P.C.C., S.L.B. and A.K. designed the measurements; T.K., S.L.B. and P.C.C. grew the samples, and performed and analysed the magnetization measurements; K.W.D. performed the differential thermal analysis measurements and analysis; T.K., A.J., M.R., A.K. and A.I.G. performed the X-ray diffraction measurements and data analysis. A.I.G. and P.C.C. drafted the manuscript and all authors participated in the writing and review of the final draft.

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Correspondence to Alan I. Goldman or Paul C. Canfield.

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Goldman, A., Kong, T., Kreyssig, A. et al. A family of binary magnetic icosahedral quasicrystals based on rare earths and cadmium. Nature Mater 12, 714–718 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3672

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